My jeep has an open diff in the rear.. And someone mentioned to me I could weld the spider gears to lock it up..

What are pros n cons of doing this? How is the driveability affected?

What else could I do that wont cost a lot?

Let me know what you guys think, thanks!

 

Dont.

 

When going around a curve, your left and right wheels need the capability to roll at different speeds. It's a longer distance around the outside of the curve than the inside of the curve.

With a welded diff, your wheels are incapable of rolling at different speeds. They are completely and permanently locked together by a glob of weld. Therefore, the wheel that needs to move slower will drag, stutter, and skip around the corner. This causes unpredictable (and potentially dangerous) handling, and bad tire wear.

So don't. At least, not on anything that's licensed to drive on the street. It's not such a big deal on dirt, gravel, or anything slippery, because the wheels are then able to slip. On pavement though, welded diffs are bad.

 

Lots of cons, 1 pro. Helps offroad here and there. If it is important enough to you to lock up the rear end offroad, save up for air lockers.

 

You could look for an rear end from a junk yard to swap. wont be a full locker but you can get somethin with a limited slip which would be a big improvement.

 

I don't recommend it but there are a LOT of people with hot rods running around all day with full spools and say they don't have enough problems to make them pull the spools out. A Spool locks both axles together, basically a better way than welding the spiders.
I use a Richmond Lock_Rite in my F100 It locks both axles under load by meshing gears that replace parts of the open differential. It ratchets in a turn allowing the inside tire to free wheel UNLESS you give it enough gas to overcome the springs inside it. It is one of the cheaper ways to go besides welding or a Lincoln locker
clint

 

For a dd with welded rear spiders your gonna find yourself fish tailing alot on wet roads.
just spend $250 on a lock right.

 

I agree with the above stated. Unless this is *NOT* a daily driver, you'll end up disliking it, and you'll end up having problems that will outweigh the benefits.

Hot rods and off road Jeeps are very, very different things.

 

I welded my rear and it has worked out great for me and I am glad I did it. As said above your tires will make noise around corners and wear faster so if it is your daily driver I say get a lockright instead. If it is a trail rig I say go for it. With 31" tires you will not be too worried about breaking axles even with a Dana 35. I did mine because I want to re-gear in the future and when I re-gear I will need a new carrier. I didn't have the money for gears and a carrier so I just welded it for now. It has helped a lot on the trails.

 

Do it right the first time or don't do it at all.

 

i just welded my rear a few weeks ago and i love it! it does soo much better on the trails. but its not my dd.

 

like all the others have stated. recommended for off road rigs only. i have been tossin around the idea of welding mine. (trail rig only)

 

I had an F150 that I ran limited slip in the front and rear. I bought them off of E-bay at about $100 each. It worked great but I wanted a tighter limited slip in the rear. So I decided to weld the rear just to try it out before I bought a locker...It was a mistake. I drove my truck to work regularly. I can't say it was unsafe but it sure was annoying. In the snow it sucked. We had record snow falls and my boy took his dodge with limit slip in the rear and drove it two wheel drive while I followed him. He won. I was in and out of 4-wheel all the time. Off road in light mud I would still pick the limit slip. On rocks it was nice to have it locked. Up rocky hills it seemed about even. I don't do deep mud.

 

bad idea for your dd your gonna be bummed

 

Mine is welded and a daily driver. If your area gets a lot of rain and you'll be driving it on the street, you don't want to do it. I've been through over 400 hours of driving classes through the fire department, and my Jeep is pretty close to impossble to safely drive in rain. I've kicked the back end out many times going around curves at less than 10mph. Once that inner tire kicks, the back end loses traction. On the plus side.... When I want to kick the back end out and have some fun, it's easy as pie, burnouts locked on 33's=awesome.... and traction is definitely improved offroad.